Category: programs

Rose Chege a community organizer from Tatua Kenya , has continued to lead the Matasia community towards creating the change they want to see as regards the education of their children. As the Matasia community, they identified the challenge to be poor academic performance caused by lack of food for the children. Most of these people in Matasia are small scale farmers and upper lower class families earning at least a dollar per day. Years back, a feeding program was introduced by Government with support from WFP in the Arid and semi-arid areas (ASALS) and some schools in the slums of major towns in all Kenyan public primary schools. The Government could not sustain the program due to lack of funds; therefore, the program stopped and it was the responsibility of the parents to feed the children. However, this change has created Continue reading “UPDATE: Matasia unites to improve its Children’s education.”→

Gabriel Odhiambo(Gabby) is a fellow with Tatua Kenya from Mukuru kwa Njenga running a campaign on child labor and Education. In his community children engage in manual labor at a very tender age at the expense of their education. Their parents also seems to be comfortable with that worrying trend due to the economic hardships of life, this being the primary reason for allowing their children to find work instead of going to school.What Gabby wonders is whether the parents are aware of the consequences of this action. For the last two months, the 2014 Tatua Kenya fellows have been conducting listening projects Continue reading “UPDATE: COMMUNITIES LEADING SOCIAL CHANGE”Letting Children be Children””→

Traditionally, community development work has been left to institutions. The community members have resigned themselves as the beneficiaries and not as active players in projects addressing their own challenges. This has led to these institutions, the government included, starting initiatives that are either not relevant to the community or sustainable. This is mainly because they are not owned by the community. Tatua Kenya’s fellowship program is creating an opportunity for community leaders to learn and apply community engagement methodology in their communities. The leaders through constant coaching by Tatua staff work with the community to create a structure that allows the community to create social change.

We just celebrated having had a successful Global Gathering where we learnt, taught and shared a magnificent experience with other agents of change and participants from Uganda, Amagoro, Meru, Kajiado, Nairobi and Somerset. We also strategized about how we can work together to shift the way aid is done. How do we end the dependency cycle?

What is certain is that communities not only thrive when they have ownership over assets, but also when they are able to “own” their problems and issues. When communities accept that it is “their” problem, then they are more likely to work together to develop a solution that is better than one provided solely by an external “expert”. We have however, at most times, resigned to the belief that we can’t, and we have to go around with an empty bowl branded HELP. All we need is the ability to identify the resources around us {resource mapping} and put them together to create power. When a community is able to do this together, then they can achieve true independence.

How have you seen dependency in your community? Who do you think is the “expert” and why?